I use this tip for soldering through components on self-etched circuit boards. Basically I'm dealing with capacitors and resistors spaced 5mm to 7mm apart, some transistors and a lot of DIP8. or DIP16 IC. I like to make rectangular pads for my IC solder pads and a screwdriver tip works great for this. I recommend it for these purposes (for now). Although I keep the tip clean, I use these bugs a lot and they're good for about 4 to 6 months. If you do this together and only use the heat you need, a special one The coating on the tip is holding up as it should.